Although we can all have only 1 undergraduate education, so we can never REALLY know, I'm gonna call shenanigans. Personally, I think I would've gotten a very different education if I'd gone to Swarthmore as opposed to UVA, and those are recognized as somewhat comparable schools. When you compare Yale to Southeast Podunk State, I don't think you get an equal education.

I went to a state school for undergrad and got a great job after graduation as well as being admitted to a T20 law school.

I have met and spoken to Harvard grads. that are going to 2nd tier law schools. It doesn't matter where you went, just your GPA and LSAT score.

One thing I have learned throughout my growth process as a person is I will do whatever it takes to get my children to go to a state school. It simply does not make sense to end up $50-100K in debt for undergrad.

Hmm..I agree for the most part about UG not really mattering. However, I don't think I would push my kid to go to state school. It seems unfair to me, because I'm not rich (no where near it) yet my mom paid for me to go to school all my life (parochial school from k-12, and then ivy ug). Thus, I can't see myself telling my future kid, that they should attend a public school. Plus, in my case, my state school gave me a ridiculous amount of loans, and that school system isn't even that good (NY)

However, if I lived in a state with a good public university system (CA, MI, VA, etc) then I would tell them to think about those schools.

I'm with you on this one. It pisses me off a lot, that instead of creating one flagship university (like UVA, Umich, Berkeley, etc.), New York chooses to have numerous crappy schools. They market Binghamton as being the most selective in the system, but let's be honest, it's really not that good a school. Plus it has by far the ugliest campus that I have ever seen.

NY could definetely improve its college system.

Absolutely. NY is one of the few states with a very large population that cannot manage to come up with one good state school. If I lived in a state like VA, I would almost definitely go to UVA unless I got into HYP.

I think California has the best Public College system.

Best system, probably. In terms of individual schools, however, I'd go to UVA or Umich over Berkeley any day.

Such a choice depends heavily on your major. Obviously berkeley is best in the sciences.s

Yeah, but I've also heard that in the sciences, Berkeley has a forced curve where a 92 can result in a C.

hard it is, but best faculty they have

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jiggedyjared

Yeah... I used to play the game where I'd talk to others who had graduated from lower ranked schools for their UG and make fun of them. I honestly thought that I had gotten a great deal better education just because of US News&WR. I've worked with a T3 who is one of the smartest people I know, and I've worked with 2 T1's who are complete morons.

Besides that, a lot of people I know think that lower ranked schools like TCU or SMU are better just because they're private. UG's are UG's. Ivy gets you a little more clout. However, law school and graduate schools are horses of a different color as far as education and as far as potential careers.

People say that it won't matter in 20 years, and that it'll all depend on your career history. The problem with that is your career history (i.e. your first couple of jobs) is determined by the school you went to. Does this not strike anyone as not making any sense?